More than a week after Bryce Laspisa went missing, psychic directs searchers

SANTA CLARITA - About a dozen searchers combed an area of Castaic Lake’s shoreline Monday pinpointed by a psychic who said she had a vision of missing teen Bryce Laspisa related to that area.

At 11 a.m. Monday, men and women volunteering to look for the 19-year-old missing for more than a week met at the 7-Eleven in Castaic before heading off to search areas around the lake.

“The psychic contacted her (Laspisa’s mother, Karen) and said she had a vision or feeling,” said the missing teen’s uncle, Brian David.

The psychic identified an area at the northern edge of Castaic Lake that she said was marked with “V” and by three prominent trees.

“We didn’t find anything today,” said searcher Gilbert Fajardo late Monday afternoon. “And we were going at this at every angle.”

Fajardo said searchers scoured the area identified by the psychic.

Despite the tenuous lead, friends and relatives remained hopeful.

“My brother and brother-in-law are making treks into the area she pointed to on the map,” David said of the psychic. “We don’t want to dismiss any information.”

David is the brother of Lapisa’s mother. He lives in Illinois has been helping in the search from his home, spending about 15 hours a day on the phone and online, he said.

The missing teen — who moved from Illinois to Laguna Niguel about 18 months ago — is unfamiliar with California, David said.

Bryce Laspisa, who attended Sierra College near Sacramento and whose parents live in Laguna Niguel, was believed to have disappeared somewhere in the Castaic Lake area on Friday, Aug. 30.

His SUV was found on its side at the bottom of a 15-foot embankment early that morning, and Laspisa hasn’t been heard from since, his family says.

On Monday, searchers re-grouped at the SUV crash site after leaving 7-Eleven, then split off into pairs for the search.

“We’re all hopeful and keeping the faith,” David said.

Although hopeful, family members remain frustrated, he said, with “the lack of information” from investigators.

Detectives assigned to the Homicide Bureau of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department continue to investigate circumstances surrounding the body of a man found burning near Lake Hughes Road in Castaic on Wednesday.